Bills for crankbaits

Questions about Making Your Own Lures

Bills for crankbaits

Postby bannor10 » Mon Jan 23, 2012 4:24 pm

Larry, I noticed in your SwimWiz.pdf document that the Diving bill is part of the Lure. Will the Alumilite White hold up or would you suggest adding a separate Lip/bill? BTW-Whens Patrick coming back to the show?
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Re: Bills for crankbaits

Postby dahlberg » Tue Jan 24, 2012 8:32 am

Good observation. That's done with Alumilite. No bill material needed. There are many lures in that family, Brooks Reefer, Sparkle Tail, Burmek, Bass o Reno, Lasy Ike, Flatfish, and many, many others which are excellent designs but have been left more or less by the wayside since Otis Young created his Big O!
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Re: Bills for crankbaits

Postby lucky stick » Tue Jan 24, 2012 2:37 pm

Along the same line of question of lips/bills:

Over the weekend I made a mold of one of my favorite diving crank baits. I was able to make a one piece mold with the High Strength 2. I poured a couple of the baits using super plastic and they turned out great. I was able to take the baits out of the mold before they were totally set and manipulate the shape/angle of the bill, put the bait in front of a heat source and the bait would set up with the bill in whatever shape I wanted.

The question is: How durable do you think the bill on those medium size bait will be?


I have a long time to wait before open water here in MN, and I don't want to make a bunch if the bills are expected to be easy to break off.

Thanks!
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Re: Bills for crankbaits

Postby dahlberg » Wed Jan 25, 2012 5:48 am

hi ls
It depends on how long and how thick the bills are. A lip like a Long A, no problem, a lip like a bagley and it will eventually break!
However, it's easy to cast a lexan lip into the mold.
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L
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Re: Bills for crankbaits

Postby lucky stick » Wed Jan 25, 2012 10:06 pm

Thanks Larry!

Long A is the bait. I'm excited to toy with this bait! The alumidust looks really cool on the white hard plastic.
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Re: Bills for crankbaits

Postby Mike - Alumilite » Sat Feb 04, 2012 9:24 am

You can also bulk up the bottom base of the lip where it connects to the bait. A little added thickness where the lip connects to the bait on the under side makes a big difference to the durability. Easiest way to do this is take a small amount of clay and round the joint where the lip hits the bait eliminating the sharp angle. Smooth it round and build up it up just a little and this will add a lot of strength to the lip and reduce the flex and increase the strength.

I end up testing my lures in the Kalamazoo river this time of year where the current doesn't freeze it over.

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Re: Bills for crankbaits

Postby jsanders » Wed Feb 29, 2012 4:19 pm

another place to beef up the bill is from under the chin to the tip. just make a gentle curved "rib" so it won't effect the direction the lure runs. I like the idea of leaving a spot for a lexan bill, that way you can experiment with different shapes. Just have one bodystyle and make it run shallow, med, deep and in the mud.
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